Qualified Chapel

A Qualified Chapel in eighteenth and nineteenth century Scotland was an Episcopal congregation that worshipped liturgically but accepted the Hanoverian monarchy and thereby "qualified" under the Scottish Episcopalians Act 1711 for exemption from the penal laws against the Episcopal Church of Scotland .

After the Glorious Revolution of 1688, many Scottish Episcopalians, holding the Divine Right of Kings, remained true to their oaths to James VII and II and refused in conscience to recognise or pray for William and Mary. The Episcopalians were ejected from parish churches by the Presbyterians. After the Jacobite risings of 1715 and 1745 in which many Episcopalians participated, harsher restrictions were imposed on Episcopalians under the Toleration Act of 1746 and Penal Act of 1748. Priests who did not swear allegiance to George II, pray for him by name and register their Letters of Orders were forbidden to minister to more than four people ("the prescribed four") at any one time. The penalty for a first offence was imprisonment for six months; thereafter the penalty was transportation to the West Indies plantations for life. Penalties for lay people worshipping at Episcopalian services included being prevented from holding any public office, deprivation of the right to vote and being barred from admission to the universities and colleges. Further persecution followed – no clergyman ordained by a Scottish bishop could "qualify" to conduct ordinary and open worship.

The eighteenth century saw the establishment of Qualified Chapels where worship was conducted according to the English Book of Common Prayer and where congregations, led by priests ordained by Bishops of the Church of England or the Church of Ireland, were willing to pray for the Hanoverians. Such chapels drew their congregations from English people living in Scotland and from Scottish Episcopalians who were not bound to the Jacobite cause. These were independent congregations, not recognised by the bishops of the Episcopal Church of Scotland, and refusing to accept the authority of those bishops.

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